mpc 60II or ensoniq eps??? i need xpert advise.

[jahrome]

It seems you made up your mind....

so I won't attempt to talk you out of it or make you re-consider other options...



Floppy disks don't hold much as far as samples..and they are extremely slow. It is better to buy older gear that have SCSI ports so you can connect SCSI hard drives/zip drives to save your files.

You do know that older gear usually can't load .wav files or easily exchange files between a PC, especially if you are using Windows XP?

[DJ KooLKiD]

hmmm i see.

hey jahrome you can always throw in your opinion, dont mean you have to try to talk me out of getting an eps, but please put in your other options (who knows might be exactly what i needed).

why wouldnt i need a scsi port though? isnt it better to save you files onto an external hard drive (like a scsi drive or a zip drive) rather than saving everything into the eps?


hmmm... another question that has just come up is. where would i record everything to?.. wouldnt i need some type of recording medium so i can then burn my beats onto a cd or something?

thanks for all the help once again guys!

[BigRyan]

Originally posted by DJ KooLKiD
hmmm i see.

hey jahrome you can always throw in your opinion, dont mean you have to try to talk me out of getting an eps, but please put in your other options (who knows might be exactly what i needed).

why wouldnt i need a scsi port though? isnt it better to save you files onto an external hard drive (like a scsi drive or a zip drive) rather than saving everything into the eps?


hmmm... another question that has just come up is. where would i record everything to?.. wouldnt i need some type of recording medium so i can then burn my beats onto a cd or something?

thanks for all the help once again guys!

With the EPS, most available media is on floppies. And I don't think the EPS really has enough memory in it that you're going to need lots and lots of floppies to hold your samples.

Keep in mind, if the EPS has a SCSI port, it is an older SCSI standard and will not work with some (or most) newer SCSI devices. Only ZIP type drives and very old hard drives will probably work.

And "what do I record to" is one of the complications of being a hardware producer. There's no quick Export or Bounce function like Cubase or Protools. You can connect your mixer out to a tape deck, or a computer to burn it to CD, or a stand-alone audio CD burner, or anything you want.

[DJ KooLKiD]

hmmm... ok so let me get this staright.

i dont need a scsi drive cuz i would load and save everything onto floppies? is that right?

also, what exactly is this oex expander that i keep seeing on ebay?.. whats the use for it? and would i need it for my setup?

so back to the scsi drive. well i have found several drives that would support my ensoniq eps keyboard. wouldnt it be safe to backup all my files onto an external drive?...basically, explain to me why i wouldnt need an external drive, so i can understand this whole scsi deal.

and finally, what recording medium would u suggest i get?... maybe a cassette deck for its warmer sound?(i dont know).. please help me out.

once again. thank you guys for your patience with me! u guys been a great help!

[jahrome]

If the gear you are buying doesn't have a SCSI port..forget buying it. Floppies is not a good medium to save files to these days. You DO need gear with a SCSI port (older gear).

And please don't record your music to tape...unless you are talking reel-to-reel...and those days are pretty much gone.

Well, one you make your purchase..consider a mixer and a sound card for your computer next.

Oh..and not to bash the EPS..but there are reasons why they are so cheap now.

[zero12]

dj the mpcII is a better sequencer than the eps, so so forget the s950 and just go with those. use the eps for keys only and stero sampling.

[DJ KooLKiD]

ok so then i do need a scsi port when i purchase the eps. cool.. now i got a couple more questions!

what exactly is this oex expander that i keep seeing on ebay?.. whats the use for it? and would i need it for my setup?

well since u mentioned that i needed a mixer.. what would u suggest? (i plan to save up for the mackie 1604vlz pro mixer)

and why would i need a soudcard for my computer? (i plan to get the audiophile 24/96).... any suggestions?

so instead of getting a cassette deck, i should just get a cd recorder as my recording medium?

[fivestar]

put it like this guy, its better you buy an eps that already has the scsi if you want scsi becuse, the scsi isnt really that easy to find ( not cheap anyways)

[BigRyan]

DJ Koolkid... I can see you're going to be confused again and pulled in 8 different directions.

Just buy something. All the gear you're looking at is great, and you'll be happy with ALL of it.

Don't be too worried about the floppies. Do what I do, save two copies of everything you do. If one copy goes bad, make a new second copy from the one that does work.

SCSI is very very useful, but LOTS of people, here and otherwise, make lots of music just fine without any SCSI connectivity. It's really not a big deal.

[jahrome]

Don't be too worried about the floppies. Do what I do, save two copies of everything you do. If one copy goes bad, make a new second copy from the one that does work.

SCSI is very very useful, but LOTS of people, here and otherwise, make lots of music just fine without any SCSI connectivity. It's really not a big deal.

Do worry about floppies. By your equipment choice..it appears that you want to sample. It is a pain in the butt to save samples to floppies. You can possibly end of with several floppies for just one song. I would never use the floppy drive of my MPC 3000. I use an external scsi zip drive...it is like 70-150 floppies on one zip disk.

Now the latest modern samplers have added USB in addition to/or to replace SCSI.

Also, SCSI is lightning fast compared to saving/loading to floppy.

Off hand, I can't think of any piece of equipment that was released lately with just a floppy drive..even many new computers don't have floppy drives.